Raymond Allan Johnson

Mr. Song's Dinner Table Raymond Allan Johnson

Growing up, I didn't know much about China; but I thought I was pretty well-versed about Chinese food, especially after I met this female Chinese chef, during my time in the Culinary Arts Program at Charles Chadsey High School. We were serving food at one of the arts schools, in the Cultural Center; and she used art of the time to school me about the dishes we were serving. She also taught me how to hold a pair of chopsticks. I came away from that experience even more determined to pay attention to the menus, whenever I ate out at a Chinese restaurant. But, it wasn't until I came to China that I discovered how little I actually knew about Chinese food. And what I learned, living here for just short of seven years, motivated me to talk about it, in a book. Over my time here, I was privileged to eat in some of China's finest restaurants, to eat in numerous Chinese homes; and, even to be hosted in a tiny rural farmhouse, in Henan Province - seventeen hour, by train, away from my city. Mr. Song's Dinner Table is not a cookbook, although I have included a small number of recipes. It is an exploration of the things that make Chinese food special and unique; and the things that distinguish Mainland Chinese food from what we have available to us, in most parts of the United States. From street food, to banquet food, to high-end restaurant food, to the delicious food in little holes-in-the-wall, this book explores them all.